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Pat Smathers was born in Canton, N.C., a mill town in the mountains his family has called home for eight generations. As a young boy, Pat, the son of a grocer and a clothing store clerk who became a North Carolina state parole and probation officer, made the small town's streets his playground. When, in 2004, those same streets were submerged beneath seven feet of muddy water unleashed by two 500-year floods in ten days, Pat led the charge to restore and reinvigorate his hometown. His successful campaign was invigorated by values he has cherished since childhood: Cooperation, determination and strong leadership.
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| Pat, the youngest of three children, was born in Haywood County on January 8, 1954. His mother, Frances Cogburn, could claim kinship with the Inmans, later immortalized in Charles Frazier's best-selling novel Cold Mountain. His father, Loranzo, was a descendant of Johannes Smetters, a German immigrant who settled Dutch Cove just prior to 1800. |
| Loranzo Smathers in the early 1960s opened the automated doors on the first modern grocery store west of Asheville. He willingly shared with customers what he considered the keys to a happy life: "Go to the First Baptist Church; buy your groceries at Smathers Market and vote Democratic." Loranzo introduced Pat to Democratic politics at an early age, stationing him outside the First Union Bank in 1960 to stump for John F. Kennedy and Terry Sanford. Pat was a proud Party member before he could even pronounce the polysyllabic word "Democratic," enthusiastically proclaiming himself "a donkey." |
| Pat forged some of his fondest memories on his uncle and aunt's farm, where he rode tractors and slopped hogs. But he spent most of his childhood playing sports, becoming a fearsome offensive lineman by the time he reached high school. Pat overcame two knee surgeries to twice help lead his team to state championships, winning the title in his senior year. |
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Pat attended Duke University on a full athletic scholarship (freeing up his college savings to be spent on a brand new gold Corvette, which he still has), and graduated in 1976 with a B.A. in political science. He went on to study law at Wake Forest University, where he was student bar president and received his J.D. in 1979 |
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| After law school, Pat fulfilled a lifelong dream to serve his country by joining the North Carolina National Guard. In addition to providing Pat with the opportunity to travel throughout the country and the world, the Guard gave him the chance to experience the efficacy of working at the community level. He has continued to pursue his military education, being a recent graduate of U.S. Army College with a master's in strategic studies. He retired in August 2007 as a lieutenant colonel. |
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Pat began practicing law in western North Carolina in late 1979. He was in an Asheville restaurant the next year when he spotted the woman who would become his wife; Pat and Sherry were married in 1982. The couple has two children: Zeb, a law student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Anna, who graduated from Appalachian State University in May 2007. |
| Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Pat remained active in the western North Carolina community, serving on numerous boards and chairing the Haywood County Democratic Party. He also worked closely with the area's public schools, serving as attorney for the Haywood County School Board and Haywood Community College. |
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Pat's civic and political achievements were recognized with a host of awards, including the Papertown Association Person of the Year award in 1998, and the Haywood Rotary Club Citizen of the Year award in 2003.
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By the late 1990s, downtown Canton had become a very different town than the one Pat considered his playground when he was a boy scampering down Main Street, testing his vertical jump on the merchants' striped canvas awnings. Storefronts stood vacant, and the pollution that had emanated for years from the paper mill clung to buildings and clogged the Pigeon River. Believing the town was ripe for revival, Pat ran for mayor in 1999 on an ambitious rejuvenation platform.
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As mayor, Pat worked with other city officials to rebuild the community he remembered and improve the quality of life for fellow citizens. Unsightly power poles, whose lines crisscrossed downtown, were buried. The Colonial Theater, a 1932 movie house that was the hub of social activity for decades, was restored. Water and sewer lines were extended, and new ball fields and tennis courts were built. Town residents, who had long lamented the sad state of their hometown, started to feel good about Canton again.
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And then, in September 2004, the Pigeon River bulged with rain from a pair of hurricanes, spilling over its banks and pouring through Canton. The trash-strewn floodwaters tore trailers and propane tanks from the ground, and rammed through the streets the community had worked so hard to restore.
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The damage was estimated at $100 million, but the cost in town morale was immeasurable. Pat immediately went to work, collaborating with community members, state agencies and Blue Ridge Paper to not just rebuild, but build better. His creativity, resourcefulness and commitment reinvigorated Canton, a town that is now stronger than ever.
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Pat is running for lieutenant governor because he believes empowering communities to determine their own futures creates a stronger state for all of us. By encouraging "local leadership, statewide," we can build a better North Carolina.
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